Nine per cent of pedestrian crashes happen in DTES, but majority of tickets handed out there

Vancouver police handed out 76 per cent of jaywalking tickets in Downtown Eastside in past four years

A recent report showed 76 per cent of the city’s jaywalking tickets issued in the past four years were given to people in the impoverished neighbourhood. However, ICBC crash data shows only nine per cent of pedestrian crashes in the city occur there.

Photograph by: wayne leidenfrost
, PNG

Jaywalking is a huge problem in the Downtown Eastside resulting in a disproportionate number of serious collisions between pedestrians and vehicles, said a Vancouver police department spokesman.

Const. Brian Montague made the remarks one day after a damning report accused police of unfairly ticketing locals for the illegal behaviour.

But an independent review of ICBC crash data by The Vancouver Sun has found the number of pedestrian collisions in the Downtown Eastside does not statistically support the case made by police.

Instead, the data strengthens claims made by two local advocacy groups that police are discriminating against residents of the city’s poorest neighbourhood.

According to the Pivot Legal Society and Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, 76 per cent of the city’s jaywalking tickets issued over the past four years were given to people in the Downtown Eastside.

Police said the high number of tickets issued is evidence of the scale of the problem in the troubled inner-city neighbourhood.

“We do have a problem with jaywalking and with pedestrians getting struck on the Downtown Eastside. It is a disproportionate amount and it is a high amount,” said Const. Brian Montague, VPD spokesman.

But based on ICBC’s map of pedestrian crashes, which covers the period from 2008 to 2012, The Sun found that only nine per cent of all pedestrian crashes in the city occurred in the Downtown Eastside (defined as the streets between Cambie and Clark and from Prior north to the water).

According to ICBC data, 200 accidents took place in the Downtown Eastside over the four-year time span out of a city-wide total of 2,215.

The intersection of East Hastings and Main Street saw the highest number of collisions, with 30 accidents recorded. Another 12 accidents occurred at Carrall Street and Hastings Street.

The intersections of Commercial Drive and East Broadway (17), Main Street and Terminal Avenue (17), East Broadway and Nanaimo Street (16) and Burrard Street and Davie Street (14) also ranked among Vancouver’s most dangerous crash zones.

What the data doesn’t show is what share of these collisions were the result of jaywalking versus vehicle error, such as a car hitting someone in a crosswalk or intersection.

That’s an important omission, said Kerry Jang, a city councillor and psychology professor at the University of B.C.

Jang said jaywalking is particularly prevalent on the Downtown Eastside because of the high number of residents who struggle with drug addiction, alcoholism and mental illness — issues that can impair judgment.

“That stretch of Hastings Street is bad. Chinatown is bad. It just is. I defy anybody to go down there and tell me it doesn’t happen. I don’t know how many times I’ve swerved to miss people myself,” Jang said.

Montague said police are limited in what they can do to curb the behaviour.

“Our officers have the ability to write a ticket or not write a ticket,” he said.

The tickets carry a financial penalty of $100, but that fee can be waived by the courts should a person choose to contest it, Montague said.

Jang said he expects most of the 2,050 jaywalking tickets handed out on the Downtown Eastside in the last four years were not paid. But he maintains the tickets remain an important educational tool for police to try to change dangerous behaviour.

Jang said the city is also investing in engineering solutions to the problem. In 2011, despite objections by the VPD, council approved a plan to reduce the speed limit from 50 km/h to 30 km/h along a six-block section of Hastings to make the area safer for pedestrians.

The decision came after three pedestrians died in one month in collisions with motorists.

Between 2005 and 2009 there were 32 reported collisions between motorists and pedestrians at the intersection of Main and Hastings.

The VPD stopped short of endorsing the 30 km/h speed limit for Hastings, citing collision data that suggested the majority of pedestrian fatalities were because of pedestrian error rather than excessive speed.

Stricter laws would only “dilute” the ability of officers to promote safety across the city, officers said at the time.

Jang said the city is also contemplating adding more stop lights in the community to make jaywalking less tempting for pedestrians.

But ticketing won’t stop, nor does he want it to.

“If you stopped giving the tickets, I think we would see an increase in street disorder because no one is being reminded that this is what is expected behaviour in our society,” Jang said.

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A recent report showed 76 per cent of the city’s jaywalking tickets issued in the past four years were given to people in the impoverished neighbourhood. However, ICBC crash data shows only nine per cent of pedestrian crashes in the city occur there.

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